Saturday, 1 May 2010

Fibromyalgia makes your eyes go funny

"Everything is slightly blurred, sort of misty, as if you are looking through a mild fog. The symptoms started slowly and at first weren't there all the time, it would be blurry one day and then it would go for a few days, but now it is a permanent thing and I simply can't focus clearly. I also have these terrible dry eyes, and wake up in the morning feeling as though my eyes are full of sand, stuck together and gritty." [Source]

My right eye is often sore and gritty and gives me a constant "tick", as I involuntarily blink my eye, over and over, in hopes of clearing whatever it is that's irritating it. Of course, nothing is, so it can't be cleared either.

My left eye, on the other hand, often weeps copiously for no good reason.

All of these symptoms come and go and wax and wane in severity, on their own schedule, but they've been going on for years. Any exertion will make them worse to the point that they badly interfere with my vision.

Sometimes it's headaches or light sensitivity that cause disturbances. Sometimes I can only read for about 30 minutes. Sometimes it's so bad I can't even look at moving TV images. Even just the scrolling movement of a web page can cause me to become dizzy and nauseous, so I can't even skim read, let alone pay proper attention (if the fibro fog lets me take in new information.)

Years ago I became almost completely night blind and long before I stopped driving all together, I stopped driving at night, because I just could not see where I was going well enough to keep up with the speed of the traffic and, oncoming lights would totally blind me so I'd have to slow or stop.

At my last eye exam, I "failed" at the peripheral vision test and trying to follow the random dots, gave me a headache, made me feel dizzy and nauseous.

Glasses are seldom comfortable and can give me a headache and, my prescription has been changing very rapidly in the last few years. I can't afford optician's prices, but I'm now on the strongest of cheap reading glasses.

Other times, my eyesight just goes blurred and stays that way for as long as it wants. Glasses make no difference. Sometimes I can make out shapes of words and images I know, but I won't be able to read or make out new things.

Alex also lists similar symptoms as a result of her pain medication for ME/CFS in, Blurred vision. It's not fun. In my case, this has been happening for years and certainly when I wasn't taking any medication, so it's not something over which I have any control, which makes this symptom one of the most frightening.

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